It’s for the forced dues-paying members.
Via Watchdog
Protests outside fast food restaurants flared up in cities around the country Thursday, organized by groups with plenty of ties to prominent labor unions. The front groups organizing the protests — with names like Citizens Action of New York and Fast Food Workers United — use a mix of Occupy Wall Street populism and Big Labor tactics to draw attention to their cause.
But the real goal seems to be drawing more members into the union, rather than generating better working conditions for America’s legions of burger-flippers.
The Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, is one of the biggest backers of the effort to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour and to unionize fast food workers. The union is heavily invested in the effort, having spent more than $38 million, directly and indirectly, in 2013 alone.[…]
Williams said unions like SEIU are growing desperate for new members, as labor union membership in the private sector has dwindled over the past few decades.
“If the union chose to invest that money in its members’ pension fund or career advancement programs, perhaps it wouldn’t have such a difficult time persuading workers to join the union,” he said.